After the WNBA pushed back on what would have been a record-breaking $325 million sale of the Connecticut Sun to a group led by Boston Celtics minority owner Steve Pagliuca, the organization is expected to counter with multiple proposals to the league, according to a Tuesday report from ESPN's Alexa Philippou and Ramona Shelburne.
Pagliuca reportedly intended to buy the Sun and, as early as 2027, relocate the team to Boston, where it has already sold out TD Garden for select games two years in a row.
But the W took issue with the potential transaction. The league office stated that the WNBA's board of governors makes relocation decisions, not individual teams. Also, since Boston didn't submit an expansion bid over the past three years, it doesn't have priority over interested cities that have already gone through the expansion process, according to the league, ESPN reported.
Per ESPN's report, this frustrated the Mohegan tribe, which has owned the Sun since it purchased the Orlando Miracle after the 2002 season, rebranded the team and moved it to Uncasville, Connecticut. The tribe, according to ESPN sources, believes the W is trying to control how much the team is sold for and where it will be moved, whereas the tribe wants to maximize the franchise's value, just as it would in the sale to Pagliuca's group.
After all, a professional women's team has never sold for as much as $325 million before.
Prior to that bid being reported on Aug. 2, though, the WNBA offered to purchase the Sun for $250 million and not charge the new buyer an additional relocation fee, per ESPN, which explained that such an arrangement would allow the league to essentially hand the team off to one of its preferred expansion cities.
The tribe, the W's first non-NBA owner, would like to keep the Sun in New England. Meanwhile, the WNBA would eventually consider a Boston team in a later round of expansion, per the ESPN report — which includes that the league prefers new Celtics owner Bill Chisholm owning the city's WNBA franchise, too — but Boston has to first submit an expansion bid in that seemingly separate timeline.
In the meantime, the Mohegan tribe is proposing sale options to the league that reportedly include a full sale to Pagliuca's group; a sale to a group spearheaded by former Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry, who would move the Sun to Hartford, Connecticut, per ESPN; a sale of only minority stake in the franchise; or a sale to the league but for the record-breaking $325 million.
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